It is known in the art relating to high pressure fuel pumps to use close fitting reciprocating plungers to provide efficient pumping members suitable for developing high fuel pressures for direct injection of fuel into engine combustion chambers. Such pumps are widely used in diesel engines for direct injection of fuel at high cylinder pressures for compression ignition of the fuel. However diesel fuel has relatively high lubricity, higher viscosity and other characteristics which differ from current automotive gasoline for use in spark ignition engines. It was desired to develop a high pressure plunger fuel pump suitable for use with spark ignition or dual mode engines to inject gasoline and similar fuels directly into engine combustion chambers for ignition and burning.